Beltenebros having taken leave of the Princess, returned joyfully to the fountain where the Damsels were. He bade Enil go to London, and get him other arms made the same as those he wore, which were now so battered as to be useless, and he was to buy him another sword, and bring them in eight days to the Fountain of the Three Channels. Enil forthwith departed, and the Damsels also taking their leave, rode on to Miraflores, and there told Oriana and Mabilia what great feats they had seen that day atchieved by a Knight called Beltenebros. He meantime struck into the forest, and rode slowly the same way, till he came to a brook winding among the trees, and there, for it was yet early, he alighted and took off his helmet, and drank of the water, and cleansed himself from the sweat of the battle; and there he remained, musing over his past and present fortunes and the strange vicissitudes of life, till night approached; then he made for the castle. Durin and Gandalin met him at the garden-wall, and took his horse. Oriana and Mabilia and the Damsel were on the wall: they gave him their hands: presently he was over, and held Oriana in his arms; but who can tell what joy there then was in embracing and kisses, and the mingling of tears? Mabilia roused them as from a dream, and led them into the castle, and there Beltenebros remained eight days with Oriana in joys dearer to him than even Paradise. Meantime King Lisuarte was preparing for the battle against King Cildadan, which he much doubted, knowing what Giants and mighty Knights would be with his enemy. Florestan and Galaor and Agrayes were returned, and Don Galvanes Lackland had arrived, and many other good Knights. The whole talk was of Beltenebros, and many said his deeds surpassed those of Amadis; whereat Galaor and Florestan were so enraged, that nothing but their promise to undertake no adventure before the battle, withheld them from seeking him and proving him in mortal combat, but of this they only communed with each other. One day there came into the palace an old Squire with two others, all clad in garments of the same cloth. The old man's beard was shorn, his ears were large, and the hair of his head grey. He, kneeling before the King, addressed him in the Greek language: Sir, the great fame which is gone abroad of the Knights and Dames and Damsels of your court hath brought me hither, to see if I can find among them what for sixty years I have sought through all parts of the world, and reaped no fruit for my labour. Noble King, if you hold it good, permit that a trial may be made here, which shall not be to your injury nor to the shame of any. All who were present, desirous to see what it might be, besought the King's assent, which he, feeling the like curiosity, readily granted. The old Squire then took in his hand a coffer of jasper, three cubits long and a span wide, its sides being fastened with plates of gold; this he opened, and took out a sword, so strange as the like was never